Roberts was the first independent, professional British artist to travel so extensively in the Near East. His tour in 1838-9 produced 272 sketches, a panorama of Cairo and three full sketchbooks, enough material to “serve me for the rest of my life” (Roberts, eastern journal, 28 Jan 1839). Over the next decade he made “a series of intire new drawings” for the large coloured lithographs executed by Louis Haghe for The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt & Nubia, which was originally published by subscription, 1842-9. No publication before this had presented so comprehensive a series of views of the monuments, landscape, and people of the Near East. “Robert’s Holy Land was one of the most important and elaborate ventures of nineteenth-century publishing, and it was the apotheosis of the tinted lithograph” (Abbey, Travel). These lithographs were originally published in twenty parts, most parts containing six plates, the price for each part with coloured plates (the most expensive state) being 3 guineas.